Not sure what to do with DP

[Solom01]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what I should try next. I have a 10 gallon tank with 2 small otos, 3 ghost shrimps and 2 small, juvenile Dwarf Puffers. I have checked the water quality every day for the last three weeks or so and it is Amonia = 0, PH = 7.2, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 4. I change about 30% of the water per week. All the fish are doing well except the second dwarf puffer which I purchased about two and a half weeks ago. When I first got it, it was quite active, would come to the front of the tank to eat, and acted just like the other dwarf. The problem is that the original dwarf picks on the new one and although it does not seem to have hurt it, the new dwarf now spends almost all of its time hiding in some plants and seems to be loosing weight. It is very lethargic. I feed the fish frozen blood worms, frozen squid, freeze dried mosquito larvae and algae tablets for the otos, plus two or three pond snails each day. The tank has quite a few live plants in it (maybe 50%) and a few ornamental logs with hiding places available and I keep it at 76-78 degrees F. When I first got the second puffer, it hung around with the first and everything seemed fine until the first puffer started picking on it. I thought that by having only two in a tank that size with plants everything would be fine, but obviously I was wrong. I don't have another tank and although I would set up a new tank it will take a while and I doubt the puffer would survive that long. Does it make any sense to get a live breeder net to separate the second puffer from the first? This would only be for a couple of weeks until the other tank was ready. There is also the possibility, of course, that the new puffer has some illness, but I can't see any signs of ick, wounds, etc. so I wouldn't know what to try. The only thing I have ever added to the salt is a little bit of aquarium salt when I got the first puffer since I though I saw some small white patches of ick on. After they went away I stopped using the salt. Anyway, I was hoping that someone could let me know if they have any suggestions on what I should try doing next.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Have you ever tried sexing them? It sounds to me like you might have two males. Without at least four females in there, two males will fight. Here's an article. They might be too young for you to tell, though.
library/puffers-in-focus/sexing-carinot ... rf-puffer/

[Solom01]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I've read a couple of articles on sexing them, but these are very young (that's all I've ever seen in the stores here) so the differences they say to look for (black line on belly, wrinkles in back of gills) aren't there. I'm thinking that you're right though, and they are both males. I honestly thought that even with two males they would be okay if they had 5 gallons each so that they could have their own territory....I guess I was wrong. If it survives until this weekend I'll set up another tank and separate them. I hate doing that since the tank won't have time to cycle and I can't find any of that chemical (I forgot the name) that they claim will cycle a tank quickly, but I dodn't see where I have any other choice.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Tetra SafeStart or Dr. Tim's. No other brands for FW.

You could get a divider for now.

Having space helps, but it doesn't fix the problem. APOCRYPHA has two males. They were in a 38-40g, and it was the most densely planted tank I've ever seen in my life. Things worked out well for a while, but as they got older, they started fighting. She never updated us on her final decision, but I think that instead of getting another tank she was going to add females.

[Jivenjune]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, I've read a couple of articles on sexing them, but these are very young (that's all I've ever seen in the stores here) so the differences they say to look for (black line on belly, wrinkles in back of gills) aren't there. I'm thinking that you're right though, and they are both males. I honestly thought that even with two males they would be okay if they had 5 gallons each so that they could have their own territory....I guess I was wrong. If it survives until this weekend I'll set up another tank and separate them. I hate doing that since the tank won't have time to cycle and I can't find any of that chemical (I forgot the name) that they claim will cycle a tank quickly, but I dodn't see where I have any other choice.

Just use some old filter media to seed the new tank with the appropriate bacteria.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Good point, JJ. I would check parameters daily for a week after doing this.

[Solom01]

Thanks for the help. I placed him in a net breeder but he's in such bad shape I doubt he'll make it. If he lives I'll put him in the other tank this weekend. I'll never try to keep multiple DPs in the same tank again unless I'm sure what sex they are.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Is he really banged-up, with open wounds? If so, treat with Melafix. If not, he's probably going to be fine. Offer him some extra food - I guess that the other male has kept him from eating, since he lost weight?

The net breeder is a perfect solution for now.